Ideas for a sand sifter

[landon]

Hello all.

I've been calling around today looking for a Sleeper Goby to help turn the sand in my tank. No one seems to have any in stock. SO, what kind of fish do y'all designate the sand sifting job to? Any different ideas?

Thanks!

 

[the fish store]

try a sand sifting starfish.

 

[fener103]

Horseshoe crab!

 

[drnecropolis]

Sand sifting stars are known to eat the life out of the sand bed and die from starvation.. As do Horseshoe crabs.. That and Horseshoes get enormous..

Look into a Watchman goby, diamond goby or Dragon goby..

 

[curtis mitchell]

what size tank . my yellow sleeper goby does my 55 too good, but it eats frozen food also hardest worker I got

 

[oz]

+1 on the tank size/maturity.

Pure Reef had sleepers the other day. I have ladder gliders, they seem to do the same job without spreading the sand all over the place. (or as much)

 

[jennm]

Horseshoe crabs have a poor survival rate in captivity. Not to mention that in the unlikely event that they do survive... they get HUGE.

Nassarius snails are good sand stirrers.

Jenn

 

[weaglereefer]

I thought horseshoe crabs needed cooler water, too?


Get some snails and maybe a goby. If you need more than that, you're feeding too much or don't have enough flow.

 

[wonka2000]

I like the horseshoe crabs and starfish.

 

[landon]

Oz;553581 wrote: +1 on the tank size/maturity.

Pure Reef had sleepers the other day. I have ladder gliders, they seem to do the same job without spreading the sand all over the place. (or as much)

My tank is 85 Gallons. It's been going now for 6 months. All my live rock came from a tank that was established for 5 years and gave my the DT a jump start with bacteria, hitchikers and algae.

I like the idea of the starfish but, like some of you mentioned, feared more to much sifting.

 

[landon]

Amberjack;553723 wrote: Actually, we have a sand sifting star in the 350 @ GMC-D and it takes care of the entire tank. </em>

A sifting star might be a bit of overkill in a 85. Go with your favorite goby</em>

btw, what kind of substrate do you have?</em>

Yeah, i do really like the Sleeper Goby. Think I'll just stick with finding him. Thought there may be some fish someone ordered somewhere that we just really cool lookin .

As for my substrate, I have very fine sand.

 

[kvdigiulio]

I have a 3"dragon goby in my 90. The sand in my tank is a little more coarse than a fine substrate but not to coarse where he might have problems filtering. He works hard and had my entire sand bed cleaned in 2 days and is so cool to watch. He has his one burrow under a large rock but uses the entire tank. One thing you should watch out for is if you have any coral on the sand bed he will deposit sand on your coral. Well worth price.

 

[mikesommers]

I have a Sand Sifter Star thats about 6 inches wide. My sand bed always looks brand new. Besides a sand sifter is CHEAP. IF you keep good water parims and feed decently then the star fish do fine IMO. I also have a Fiji Blue Linkia that some say is impossible to keep, anyone that sees my tank always comments on both of them. They are cool. They do need lots of fish poo and left over food in the rocks.

 

[landon]

Thanks for all the help and info guys!

 

[mikesommers]

:up:

 

[presteige]

diamond goby

 

[jbadd99]

Diamond Goby...

Tried the sand sifting sea star - didn't work out too well for either one of us.

Got the goby - was having a problem with diatoms (new tank) and now the sand looks brand new and is constantly being stirred.

 

[reefdiver]

JennM;553596 wrote: Horseshoe crabs have a poor survival rate in captivity. Not to mention that in the unlikely event that they do survive... they get HUGE.

Nassarius snails are good sand stirrers.

Jenn

+1 for the snails.
when they come up from the bottom of the sand bed to the top they remind of what a submarine looks like when it surfaces hard & fast.

 

[curtis mitchell]

sleeper goby

 

[glaze888]

they also have sand sifting crabs out there but dont know if the ARC sponsors carry them and have yet to try them out, but just an idea. if you want to have a look at them then go onto reefs2go.com under crabs and have a peak. again just an idea and please anyone chime in on this if you know more info on these things